ABSTRACT
The Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution contains what is called the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause. The ban on cruel and unusual punishments in the English Bill of Rights, and later in the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution, was intended to prevent the use of such barbaric and inhumane punishments. For a punishment to be "cruel," it must entail something more than "the mere extinguishment of life" and involve "unnecessary mutilation of the body." Although capital punishment itself has never been ruled cruel and unusual, the Court in Furman v. Georgia, 408 US 238, held that the death penalty, as it was then being administered for murder and rape, was so "arbitrary" and "wantonly and freakishly" imposed as to be cruel and unusual. Double-celling of inmates is not cruel and unusual, but excessive overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and abusive treatment of inmates by guards may be considered cruel and unusual, especially when such factors are examined in their totality.
